Moot Hall

Moot Hall

This is a late 16th-century building with 18th- and early 19th-century alterations, and further changes in the 20th century. The north range was rebuilt in the early 19th century and altered again in the 20th. The building is built in vernacular style.

The exterior walls are rendered rubblestone painted white with ashlar dressings mostly painted black. The roofs are covered with graduated Westmorland slate, finished with a lead ridge roll and metal ventilator. A bellcote sits at the south apex.

The building follows a linear plan, running roughly north to south, and occupies an island site at the north end of Boroughgate, the principal medieval street of the town. It comprises an original south range and a later north range built against the former gable of the latter.

The south range has two storeys beneath a pitched roof with a ridge ventilator, coped verges, kneelers, quoins and a chimneystack on the east pitch at the north. The south gable contains the entrance to the first-floor hall, surrounded by chamfered stone with a four-centred arched head. A re-set date stone above records 1596. The oak-boarded door sits in a renewed 20th-century frame fitted with reused 17th- or 18th-century strap hinges. At the gable apex is an open-sided hexagonal bellcote containing a single bell dated 1893. Access to the first-floor doorway is via a 20th-century external stone stair hidden behind a semi-circular screen wall with flat pilasters and stone coping. A moulded red sandstone panel features a raised quatrefoil containing a moulded and painted shield bearing the three leopards from the Royal Arms, incised with the date 1179, marking the date of the town's first borough charter.

The east elevation has three late 19th-century ground-floor shop fronts and doorways, all with rendered stall risers. The southernmost has a doorway with reeded stone pilasters, plinth blocks and stylised floral paterae, fitted with a four-panel door, and a separate shop window to the right beneath a plain timber fascia. The central unit has a door and a taller shopfront with matching pilasters, fascia and cornice, and a shop window divided by glazing bars. The northernmost unit has a narrow door with moulded timber architrave and four-panel door, with a separate shop window featuring plain pilasters, fascia, cornice and simple mouldings. The first floor has four regularly-spaced early 18th-century nine-over-nine unhorned sash windows with ovolo-moulded glazing bars and plain architraves.

The west elevation has an irregular pattern of small ground-floor windows and two narrow doors, including an early 19th-century sixteen-pane bow window with slender glazing bars. The shop doors have four-centred arched heads and chamfered surrounds, one fitted with a late 19th-century part-glazed door. The first floor has a pair of widely-spaced 18-pane sash windows similar to those on the east elevation.

The north range comprises two bays and three storeys with quoins beneath a hipped roof. The north gable has a pair of first-floor later 20th-century six-over-six sash windows in plain architraves, above a 20th-century full-width single-storey flat-roofed porch extension with timber classical-style detailing. A historic brass plaque inscribed "Town Clerk's Office" is fixed to the wall on the west side of the central doorway. The east elevation has an early 19th-century double shop-front with a central doorway framed by moulded timber pilasters with classical detailing. The first floor has a pair of mid 19th-century windows fitted with late 20th-century 18-pane sash windows. The west elevation also has late 20th-century fenestration comprising two pairs of small sash windows to each floor and a large 12-pane sash stair window.

Interior

The south range ground floor is divided into three shop units. The south and centre units are connected by an inserted 21st-century doorway, and the northern unit connects to the ground floor of the north range by an inserted late 20th-century doorway. Four original chamfered oak first-floor ceiling beams of heavy section with deep chamfers remain, mostly with plain chamfer stops. Their soffits bear evidence of former shop partitions, and one has been modified to accommodate a doorway. The southern shop retains a stone-flagged floor and has a blocked alcove in its south wall, thought to be a former doorway. The central shop contains a late 19th- or early 20th-century two-register wall cupboard with sliding glazed or panelled doors, and within another cupboard are visible first-floor floorboards and a lime-washed section of oak beam. The shops have modern finishes with some early 20th-century tongued-and-grooved boarding to window reveals.

The first-floor council chamber is separated by a timber partition from an adjoining mayor's parlour to the north. The chamber is entered through a 19th-century lobby with a panelled inner door with chamfered details and brass fittings. The north wall bears a First World War Roll of Honour, flanked by alcoves with 1920s lath-and-plaster canopies. The alcove to the south-east retains mid 19th-century historic wall surfaces including ashlar-scored textured plaster and high-level moulded picture rails. The north wall of the chamber is fitted with wainscot panelling and a carved frieze of late 16th- or early 17th-century interlaced strapwork. Oak-panelled doors occupy the east and west ends, and above is a full-width former gallery supported on a pair of 19th-century fluted timber posts. The walls are plain plastered and scored with lines to resemble ashlar, above an applied dado of Lincrusta-style embossed paper. They and the window reveals are fitted with early 20th-century oak picture rails in three tiers. The ceiling has inset square ventilation grilles and three exposed tie beams with applied timber details. The floorboards are original. The mayor's parlour has an inserted ceiling, above which an earlier lath-and-plaster ceiling remains, and two blocked windows on the former north gable end. The parlour fittings are largely 1920s in date, including oak-panelled doors, oak-panelled dado, picture rails and a pendent light fitting. The south wall has shallow cupboards with oak-panelled doors; the east door is a re-used section of 17th-century panelling. The five-bay roof contains four collar and tie beam oak trusses with two tiers of purlins per pitch and a diagonally-set ridge. The trusses show evidence of reuse, probably from when the roof was raised. Two phases of assembly numbers appear on the north faces of the trusses. The trusses are hand-finished and pegged, as are the oak rafters. The northern and southern trusses have cambered collars. Within the roof space, the timber partition between the chamber and the mayoral parlour is visible, infilled with hand-made bricks.

The north range was refurbished internally in 1970 with late 20th-century fixtures, fittings and finishes throughout. The ground floor serves as a Tourist Information Office, while the first and second floors serve as offices and storage respectively.